One Day
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: An old photograph results in Harry discovering another life that Voldemort destroyed. And a life unknown.


Author's note: 'upper school' in my little world is the wizard equivalent of sixth form.  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing  
  
Harry had been staying at Grimmauld Place for almost two weeks since his Ministry Enquiry. Now it was a Sunday morning and quite a few of the order were present.  
  
Tonks and Lupin were talking softly, no doubt exchanging life stories once again. They seemed to know each other back to front for the few months they had actually known each other.  
  
Moody was arguing with McGonagall about the security at Hogwarts and she (no doubt after reading an anger management book) was repeating calmly that Hogwarts was ludicrously safe, even without Dumbledore.  
  
Sirius was sitting with Fred, George and Ron, and seemed to be telling them one of the Marauder's many stories, judging by the huge smiles on their faces.  
  
Mr and Mrs Weasley were watching their sons with mixed emotions of worry and pride. Occasionally they would manage to hold a conversation, but they seemed to have little to talk about.  
  
Hermione and Ginny were playing a game of exploding snap and Snape was reading in the corner.  
  
It was that morning that Harry had found it. A photograph in Sirius's attic, he recognised a few people and was puzzling over when it had been took.  
  
"Sirius, when was this picture taken.?"  
  
With a puzzled expression Sirius examined the photo. He recognised it immediately.  
  
"This is the lot of us graduating from upper school, except Peter, but he's still in the picture anyway."  
  
He pointed at a small, pointed nosed, watery eyed man. Lupin, Snape, Moody and McGonagall all crowded around Sirius's chair. Then he continued.  
  
"There's me, James and Remus, good times."  
  
He indicated at three handsome young men all of whom with insane grins as they laughed with each other. Harry felt a surge of relief. Good times. He'd almost forgotten those. Moody's gnarled finger pointed at a group of women.  
  
"Those your girlfriends weren't they.?"  
  
Sirius and Remus smiled, as did McGonagall, even Snape looked less angry.  
  
"Lily," he pointed at the woman with long red hair and an arm around her friend. "Ursula," what looked to be Lily's best friend had short blond pigtails and looked about ready to yank them out. "Jenny," Remus and McGonagall's smiles seemed only to increase and Remus looked to be summoning a wonderful memory, when he pointed at the woman with long raven hair. "And Lilah," Sirius seemed to linger on her and Harry saw the tall brunette glance over at the photo Sirius. Finally McGonagall spoke up.  
  
"Jenny was my niece, she's your aunt, on your fathers side Harry."  
  
His jaw dropped. He had other family, and he was related to McGonagall.! Anger surged through him.  
  
"Why hasn't she come to see me.?"  
  
"Jenny was banished from the Wizarding community, along with Lilah, fourteen years ago."  
  
Sirius had bitterness in his voice.  
  
"Lilah was my sister, now I can't even talk to her."  
  
Remus sounded, if possible, even more bitter. He seemed to be having a contest with Sirius.  
  
"It was Crouch." Sirius just won.  
  
"He threw Lilah and Jenny out when they made supposedly false allegations against...someone."  
  
McGonagall seemed in a state of inner turmoil.  
  
"For god sake, we might as well tell him. It was Lucius Malfoy."  
  
Harry was appalled. He had been denied contact with his only living relatives because of Lucius Malfoy and Barty Crouch. Sirius saw his expression.  
  
"I know it's sickening. Lilah and I got married, never told anyone mind, then we had a daughter."  
  
Harry looked shocked, so he continued.  
  
"Lilah was pregnant at the same time as Lily, she'd be your age now Harry. No idea what happened to her. After I was sent to Azkaban and Lilah was banished she was taken away form us. I think about them everyday."  
  
"Why didn't you ever tell me about this.?"  
  
"There was no point and I haven't exactly had chance have I.?"  
  
Harry considered this. Then he realised, not for the first time the amount of people who had suffered that night. He looked around the circle of adults, his gaze resting on everyone of them.  
  
Lupin had lost his sister, not to mention the woman he had loved. Harry could tell he had loved her by the look in his eyes, every time he looked at photo.  
  
Moody had lost, by the sound of it, the best fighters in the war against Voldemort.  
  
McGonagall had lost her niece and nephew, and her star pupils, the only children she had claim to.  
  
Sirius had lost his daughter, never knowing what had happened to her. He also hadn't seen his wife in fourteen years.  
  
In those few moments he realised he would never be alone in his grief, there would always be someone who had suffered from the events of that one tragic night. They had all lost fragments of their hearts, Harry was lucky, he didn't have to remember it. For the first time Snape spoke.  
  
"Could I make a replica of this photo, I don't have many pictures of Constance.?"  
  
Sirius looked like he wanted nothing more than to say no. Then he looked at the picture again. Harry followed his gaze to two people in the picture. To his surprise it was Snape and what looked like the female version of Snape. They were alone in the corner, but were smiling to each other. Sirius' gaze softened. He placed the paper on the table and muttered, "copymora." An duplicate appeared. He held out the picture for Snape and it was taken with a grumbled "Thanks". Sirius, however, could not resist voicing his opinion.  
  
"Surprised you recognised her with her clothes on Snape."  
  
"Trying to give yourself a mental image Black, she is your cousin after all.?"  
  
"Keep talking Snape. I'm sure she'd love to hear your opinion of her."  
  
Snape shut up. But Sirius continued.  
  
"Where is Constance anyway.? I'm sure of anybody, you'd know."  
  
This received him a smack across the head, courtesy of McGonagall.  
  
"Shut up Sirius. You can hardly say things like that."  
  
She looked immediately sorry, but did not say anything. There was an uncomfortable silence around the entire room, the rest of the occupants had listened to the whole conversation, but now they looked pointedly anywhere but at Sirius, McGonagall, or Snape.  
  
McGonagall moved in front of Sirius and put her arms around him in apology. He clung to her and resisted the urge to cry. Harry had never seen McGonagall display that kind of affection and was surprised to see her also resisting the urge to cry.  
  
"We'll get them back Sirius. All of them, one day."  
  
He nodded.  
  
"Let's hope they don't have to face Voldemort."  
  
Half of the room flinched.  
  
"One day it'll be over Sirius. They'll be back, you'll find your daughter and Lilah. And You-Kn...Vol....demort will be gone."  
  
They could see it was hard for her. McGonagall never said his name if she could avoid it.  
  
Silently they all returned to their seats. The conversations were picked up again and Harry looked around and noticed that soon they were all back to how they had started. He smiled.  
  
Sometimes things needed to be said and then immediately forgotten.  
  
End. 


End file.
